Northern Thailand – Pai

Then in the morning we went to Pai. We had been recommended Pai a lot by various travellers. Its about a 2/3 hour journey from Chiang Mai, and such a beautiful drive through lush Thai jungle. We stopped along the way for a nice rice lunch in a little road side cafe. When we arrived we went straight to our hostel; Spicypai, another recommendation from a travelling friend. This was a nice friendly hostel, just beware of the mosquitos and spiders. The rooms are bamboo shacks with holes in the walls and the beds are crazy  uncomfortable….but for one night the hostel has a good vibe. I can’t say there’s much to do in Pai but enjoy the relaxing atmosphere, a big buddha and a canyon, pick one to watch the sunset, we tried to do both and kind of ended up missing it. Just about managed to get a couple of snaps over the canyon which was amazing. In the evening we went to walking street and had a few drinks, the night life is pretty good here if your interested!

After our outdoor shower we started making our way back to Chiang Mai, goodbye hippies and mushroom lovers! Just as we were winding through the middle of nowhere enjoying the northern Thailand jungle..bang! we managed to get ourselves a puncture :(. The roads to Pai are in perfect condition so we realised it was because the inner tubing had melted in the heat!

Northern Thailand – Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle

Next day we took a day trip to Chiang Rai and the golden triangle.

We left at 7am. Got into the usual minivan, where every Thai and other Asian seem to have permission to drive like an F1 racer. We first stopped at the eggy hot springs. These have been encompassed into mini wishing well like creations and dumped in the middle of a car park so everyone can visit and eat at the same time. They were pretty hot and steamy (with the usual sulphur odour). The difference here is that some very cleaver ladies started up their own boiled egg business, plopping small baskets if eggs in the boiling ponds to then sell on.

We then drove onto the white temple which is a must see! Even if it was rather rushed and very crowded, it’s still beautiful.

We then kept driving and went on a boat trip over to Laos For a quick stop. After a buffet lunch we went to the viewpoint where you can see Myanmer,  Laos and Thailand.  We had a great local guide called Tik who was a really interesting guy.

 

The hill tribe and long neck was the final stop and we just about managed to get a quick photo and chat with one of the ladies before a storm decided to set in!

We all bundled into the van and then about halfway back to Chiang Mai the van broke down…It was our lucky day! Tik was very good about it and 40 mins later another van turned up to deliver us back to the hostel…sleep time!

We had a chilled out day in Chiang Mai after this, walking around the markets.

Vietnam: Saigon/ Ho Chi Minh City

The first night we arrived we decided it was time for a drink as we hadn’t had one in a while…anyway a few Long Islands later we were both extremely worse for ware and have vowed not to drink again 🙏. Local Vietnamese spirits are lethal!

The next day we made it across the river to Dani’s friend Clair’s flat. She lives on the 29th floor and has stunning views over the city, after a tough day nursing deadly heads this was a glorious feeling! We bought ourselves copious amounts of crisps and pot noodle.

So the main (tourist) things we did in Ho Chi Minh were the war remmenants museum and a day trip to Cu Chi tunnels. The war museum is a must if you’re there, it’s only 15,000 dong and gives an interesting account of the Vietnam with some really eye opening photography.

The Cu Chi tunnels we are not so sure on, it was what felt like a really long day with not much time actually at the tunnels. It was over a two hour journey from HCM. It was good to see the surroundings and try to understand what it must have been like but it was quite pricey ~180,000 dong (bus and tunnels entry fee) and a long trip, the museum in the city centre was much more informative and you could get a much better feel of what really happened. The Cu Chi tunnels tour was interesting but much less informative…if you have a penchant for small spaces though you’d love it! you get the chance to crawl through one of the tunnels, Danielle got half way before freaking out, but I couldn’t even go in 😦

Whilst staying with Claire she took us to two lovely restaurants, one aimed at the expatriates; pretty classy food with a price tag to match. We had a lovely ‘English style fish and chips’ which was perfect after being away from home for so long! The other one was a Thai restaurant.

Thailand – Bangkok

I don’t think we’ll ever forget arriving into the Khao San Road (where our hostel was) at midnight with weary legs and heavy backpacks. For anyone who’s not been there, imagine trying to walk through hundreds of tourists dancing to booming music in the middle of the street, most of them out of their minds on local spirits and laughing gas. Plus the hundreds of locals trying to get you into their bars, sell you flashing light toys and street food-fried spiders and cockroaches!
We somehow made it to our room (a sweatbox with a fan) and drifted off to the sounds of drunk teenagers and starboy.

In the morning we explored the less crazy Khao San Road and had a yummy, cheap (40baht), pad Thai for breakfast. The first of many to come! That night we took the local bus to soi cowboy… lots of bars, lots of western men, lots of lady boys and girls in bikinis. We sat and watched in amazement speaking to a nice couple from Yorkshire.

In the morning we took a tuk tuk (40baht) around some of the temples. It was boiling so we were pretty happy to be driven around in a shaded tuk tuk. Just be careful of the stop off at the tourist centre to try and get you to buy something. We just sat and talked to the lady and told her we couldn’t buy anything yet as we had to talk to our friends. Don’t feel pressure from the tuk tuk drivers they just really want you to buy something because then they get a fuel voucher.

 

 

Thailand to Malaysia – Krabi Town to Langkawi

We only stayed in Krabi Town one night as there isn’t too much to do here. There is a good night market and a boots so a great chance to stock up on decently priced sun cream!! From Krabi Town we got a local bus, 50B, to Ao Nang, and stayed the next 3 nights in a lovely little guest house. The mother and son owners were very friendly. Ao Nang is quite small but has a nice beach and some good night market shopping.

On one day we got a small boat, from Ao Nang beach, to Railay beach. Costing 200B return. Railay beach is on a small peninsula which is only accessible by boat. It’s a really beautiful boat ride across and beach to explore. We just about managed to have a quick swim and relax before a storm set in! Not the best timing but it meant we had a chance to explore and dani decided to get a bamboo tattoo from a placed called ‘bamboo bar’. She literally sat at the bar while the guy proded her ankle with a bamboo needle 😳. When in Thailand eh!!

So our last day in Thailand came around pretty quickly and on the 26th we got the bus and ferry to start our Malaysian adventure in Langkawi. We bought the bus and ferry ticket from our hostel for 800B each.  On to Malaysia we go!

We left at 0600 and got to Langkawi about 1600 so was a pretty long day! So… after reading all of the blogs, it is possible to go from Thailand to Langkawi in one day, however check your tickets, the timings, and the season before you try this.

South Thailand – Koh Lanta

From Phi Phi we got another ferry to Koh Lanta, 250B which took about an hour. In Koh Lanta, for our first night we stayed right by the ferry pier so was only a 2 min walk to the hostel. Was a nice small hostel, clean and comfortable called… Not great for meeting people though. We arrived about lunchtime so we walked to the closest beach (about 30 mins walk) and stayed to watch a beautiful sunset with a little sun downer.

The next morning we hired a scooter to explore the south of the island. We fell in love with Koh Lanta, was such a great island. Much quieter than the others we had been to in Thailand and had some really beautiful beaches. The accommodation was also really cheap. For the next three nights we stayed in a private room with air con, a balcony looking over the jungle and sea, and a great swimming pool! We felt like we were on holiday from our travelling life. We could sit on the balcony eating lunch and watch the monkeys and lizards roam about.

While we stayed here we explored Nui Beach which was a small rocky beach. Good for swimming just have to avoid the obvious massive rocks. We loved it here as it was so quiet, there was only a couple of other people on the beach and it had little bamboo sun shelters too.

We also went to bamboo bay which is right at the bottom of the island, we sat and watched another beautiful sunset from here. This beach is bigger but was still fairly quiet when we were there.

The other beach we explored on Koh Lanta was the more famous long beach. This wasn’t as nice unfortunately, there was a lot of litter and the water was quite murky. We still got to see a great sun set though and had a nice walk on the soft white sand!

On our last day we headed back up to near the ferry port to get our bus to Krabi Town. The bus was 300B and took 2 hours.